(a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a new strain of Pseudomonas putida (designated as HI-70) and to the isolation, cloning, and sequencing of a cyclododecanone monooxygenase-encoding gene (named cdnB) from said strain.
(b) Description of Prior Art
Enzymatic Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (BVMO) in general are flavoproteins that can mimic the classical (100-year old) organic Baeyer-Villiger oxidations of a wide variety of ketones to lactones, many of which are valuable chiral building blocks. The deployment of microbial BVMOs in the synthesis of natural products such as lipoic acid and Baclofen, an antagonist of gamma-aminobutyric acid (better known as GABA) demonstrates the power and utility of this group of enzymes (Kelly, D. R. et al. 1998 in Biotransformation I, pp. 535-587). The use of enzymes as bio-reagents has the advantages of specificity, waste minimization and environmental friendliness. In a world where sustainable development is an increasing important issue, the use of biocatalysts to drive synthesis of essential products in various industrial applications is becoming a matter of priority choice for the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development (OECD).
To date, there is a limited list of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) that have been shown to produce BVMOs (Stewart, J. D. Curr. Org. Chem. 2:195-216, 1998; Kelly et al. supra; Schumacher J. D. and Fakoussa, R. M. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 52: 85-90, 1999; Kamerbeek, N. M. et al. Eur. J. Biochem. 268:2547-2557, 2001). A few BVMO-encoding genes have been cloned encoding products with varying substrate specificities (Iwaki, H. et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:5158-5162, 1999; Cheng, Q. et al. J. Bacteriol. 182:4744-4751, 2000; Brzostowicz P. C. et al. J. Bacteriol. 182: 4241-4248, 2000; Kamerbeek, N. M. et al. Eur. J. Biochem. 268:2547-2557, 2001).
It would be highly desirable to be provided with a new soil microorganism capable of using cyclododecanol and cyclododecanone (12-membered ring compounds) as sole carbon source for growth and energy.
It would also be desirable to be provided with the isolated DNA sequence that allows the above microorganism to use cyclododecanol and cyclododecanone (12-membered ring compounds) as sole carbon source for growth and energy.